Maybe Too Late

Part 1: Maybe Temporarily

A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other... Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.

–Dave Matthews Band

"Do you think maybe he likes me?" Iola asked mournfully, sneaking a sideway glance from beneath her long, dark eyelashes.

Kara looked up and saw Dietrich Summers looking in their direction. He looked away when their eyes met. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, legs stretched out in front of him. Sometimes one of his friends would walk past and stop for a moment's conversation, but then they'd move on after a while and Dietrich's gaze would drift over again.

"Probably," Kara observed. "He keeps looking over."

"I talked to him yesterday," Iola confided, a small smile crossing her lips. "He asked to borrow some money for lunch."

"Did your skin tingle when his fingers touched yours?" Kara teased, laughing a little at the cliché.

Iola blushed. "There were sparks alright," she said softly.

Kara privately thought that Iola and Dietrich would probably get together sometime before the year was through. He was always looking over, and judging from Iola's anecdotes, was always finding ways to talk to her. Plus, Iola was both pretty and nice – which guy wouldn't fall head over heels in love with her after getting to know her?

It didn't matter that Dietrich had a veritable fan club of girls always hanging around him - he would have to be utterly senseless to pass over such a good catch as Iola.

Kara always laughed a little, at herself, when she remembered how she had also been one of the smitten girls at the beginning of the school year, when they had first met. He was tall, mysterious and the private school uniform really accentuated his good looks. She had always been a sucker for boys in collared white shirts and ties, especially if said tie was always hanging loosely around said boy's neck. He had really good taste in shoes and bags too, she deduced. She had – still, really – really liked the way he looked.

But it had just been a superficial little crush. It had been easy enough to get rid of when Iola had told her, three months into the school year, that she had a crush on Dietrich. When Iola had divulged her little secret, Kara had sworn to help her best friend in any way she could.

Now, when she looked at Dietrich Summers, all she felt was a detached admiration for his good looks. He looked good sitting there, leaning against the wall, and he knew it. She could appreciate that. But of course she never told Iola.

Besides, she'd never really wanted to include herself in the group of tittering, often unbearably obvious girls who approached him every chance they got. Maybe it fed his ego, because although he often looked irritated at their giggling devotion, he never truly cut them loose. He even benefited tangibly from some of the more academically-inclined ones – they'd voluntarily do his homework for him. She had never understood that. How could these clearly intelligent girls be stupid enough not to realise that their actions were never going to change his mind about them?

Guys like him were not interested in the kind of girls that would throw themselves at him, that much she knew. He had been spoilt by all that attention and had gotten immune to it. He would probably decide to go for the one girl that seemed the most unavailable to him. This was why she always advised Iola not to seem too over eager, to play it cool. That was bound to catch his attention, when he was used to girls who were so desperately... desperate.